Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee

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By Craig Harris

Godzilla is one of those way-cool properties that has the unfortunate distinction of never having a really good videogame. It's been attempted several times in the past, on almost every system imaginable, but they've all been sluggish in speed and control, and downright unimaginative in their designs. It looks like Infogrames and Pipeworks hope to end the streak of badness for the king of the monsters with the Atari-branded Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee for the GameCube. Infogrames had the latest revision of the fighter on display at the company's press event yesterday, where we had the opportunity to go a few rounds with the gigantic beasts.

The game is essentially an all out brawl against several of the biggest, baddest creatures to come out of Toho's Japanese movie monster series. Players take control of their favorite 200-foot tall monster and try to be the victor against the other mammoth beasts. There will be more than a dozen creatures in the game, including classic Godzilla, Godzilla from the 2000 Toho movie (not the craptacular US film), Mechagodzilla, and King Ghidorah...and playing through the game will also unlock an additional super secret character, which we're not allowed to name here. So there. Because these guys are just so darn big, whole cities become the arena...fights take place in different parts of Seattle, Tokyo, San Francisco, and, of course, Monster Island.

Each character has its own style of attacks, but the controls remain the same. The A button punches, the B button kicks, and the triggers enable the creatures to jump and run during the fight. The direction of the stick or D-pad in combination with the attack buttons determine additional moves...so, if you're pushing down and A, for example, you'll pull off an uppercut that'll send the opposing monster flying for additional damage. Blocking is an absolute necessity in the game, which can easily be done by holding the Y button. The Z button's used for the monster's special attack, its power determined by how much energy is in the monster's energy bar...by charging the move, you can pull off long-distance attacks with tremendous power, but a simple quick press will activate shorter blasts of energy. Pressing the A and B buttons at the same time will pick up buildings and opponents, making the game a bit more like a WWE wrestling title. But just a bit. By hitting the Y and A buttons together at a specific time, you can activate the character's Rage mode, which gives the monster the ability to pull off four times the amount of damage to opponents...but only for a short time.

The game actually encourages mass destruction by hiding power-ups and items in buildings, so by slamming structures you'll let loose some needed icons that will change the direction of the fight in the middle of the brawl. Grab the Mothra icon, for example, and the huge insect will flutter in and attack everyone else in the battle...similar to how Poke-balls work in Super Smash Bros. Melee. Smaller structures can actually be picked up and hurled through the air at the opposing players as well. Of course, the army has to come in and ruin the fun. During the battle, you might find yourself attacked from the rear by a tank firing an icebeam, freezing your character in place. This makes your monster susceptible to attack by your opponent, so it's clear that you'll have to keep an eye at your feet...stomping them out of commission's the best thing to do.